CARLA WILSON
Times Colonist
The Vancouver Island Regional Library is re-engaging the assigned B.C. Labour Relations Board mediator and is seeking talks with striking librarians.
After the mediator is lined up, the goal is to find mutually agreeable dates and times for bargaining, the library said in a Saturday statement.
The library and the B.C. General Employees’ Union have been deadlocked over terms they want in a new collective agreement. The previous contract expired in December 2020.
Its board of trustees discussed the matter Saturday and agreed to work again with the mediator.
“As trustees in charge of administering VIRL’s budget, part of our job is to ensure fair wage increases for staff while balancing the financial burden to our communities,” said board chair and Port McNeill Mayor Mayor Gaby Wickstrom.
“The long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates these challenges, but the board is confident that a resumption of cooperative bargaining will lead us to a mutually acceptable outcome.”
Local municipalities and regional districts pay the majority of the annual costs of the library which serves Sooke to Sidney, to Port Hardy, coastal B.C. and Haida Gwaii.
Wages have been the main stumbling block.
The union said its 48 librarians are receiving less than librarians in similar regional systems and wants the contract to address the rising cost of living.
The library said it has offered a deal in line with what the union earlier sought.
Striking librarians put up picket lines at five branches on Saturday.
They were at Cumberland, Cowichan Lake, Nanaimo Harbourfront, Nanaimo North, and Nanaimo Wellington branches.
Those branches will be closed.
Other branches follow regular practice and open on their scheduled days because they are not behind picket lines and Canadian Union of Public Employees library staff will be working.
Services are affected because no librarians are working in the system.
